I don't know about that. Canada has a long and proud history of standing up and pulling more than its weight when the West goes to war. WWI, WWII, Korea, Afghanistan. The Canadians performed excellently in all these conflicts and earned the influence you talked about. But from these examples we can see that Canada's contributions have usually been on land. I can't think of a scenario where Canada would be fighting as part of a coalition and would be called upon to dispatch a bunch of F-35s. To contribute to collective defense, Canada should focus on having top-notch light infantry and the fixed/rotor wing assets to support them, and intelligence. America can handle the big expensive stuff better, but you can never have enough good light infantry.
canada already has one of the best if not THE best light infantry:nana: